5/1/05 - Edinburgh, Scotland, Liquid Room

5/1/05 - Edinburgh, Scotland, Liquid Room

Setlist:
Intro - 0:57
Empty Shell - 3:03
Could We - 2:04
Hey Porter - 0:44
Hate - 1:35
Lived In Bars - 3:20
Why - 2:36
The Greatest - 3:41
Living Proof - 3:18
The Moon - 4:18
Good Woman - 3:41
Love And Communication - 3:13
Remember Me - Try Me Medley - 3:09
Norma Jean - Names Medley - 4:20
He's A Mighty Good Leader - 2:10
Willie - 6:00
I Dont Blame You - 3:23
Hey Porter - 1:35
Wolf Among Wolves - 3:01
Islands - 1:20
Satisfaction - 2:33
I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart - 2:36
From Fur City - 4:59
In This Hole - 3:47
Sophisticated Lady - 2:31
Oh, Time - 3:55
When I Lay Me Down - 1:40
Who Knows Where The Time Goes - 2:05
Total Time - 1:21:54

The sixth and last date of the European tour. Entrance was the opening act.

A recording was made of this concert. Thank you to the person who recorded this and to desperateK for sharing this! My copy is a stereo mp3. I have split the tracks and my timing is above. The sound quality is excellent and the audience is very quiet and respectful. This is just my opinion, but maybe because this was the last concert of the tour she was eager to play this show and be done with it. Many songs are cut short and especially in the latter half she rushes through songs. Still, like all Cat Power concerts its a worth a listen. She sings 10 of the 12 songs that would appear on "The Greatest".

Intro - After some applause, Chan strums a few chords on her guitar and starts the first song of the concert.

Empty Shell - A good version, with Chan going right into the next song without time for applause.

Could We - Also good, and again she goes right into the next song without warning.

Hey Porter - She only manages about a one verse of this before stopping to check her tuning. And then right into the next song.

Hate - She only sings about 2 verses of this before it too is also cut short. The audience applauds and Chan moves to the piano for the next song.

Lived In Bars - A great version and like the 4/28/05 version, also taken at a leisurely pace. You can hear the sound of someone taking a picture on a disposable camera and winding to the next frame (maybe the picture below?). With one of her piano flourishes she heads right into the next song.

Why - A good version and again she goes right into the next song without stopping for applause.

The Greatest - Always great to hear Chan singing this song solo with piano. Again, right into the next song.

Living Proof - This also sounds really good. The grouping of "The Greatest", "Living Proof", "Lived In Bars" and "Why" always makes me think that "Why" might have been intended for the album "The Greatest" but didnt make the cut. The audience applauds and Chan says "Cheers".

The Moon - Now back on guitar, Chan takes a brief moment to check her tuning and starts the song. She gets about one verse into it before stopping and checking her tuning again and restarts the song. A good version, and she goes right into the next song.

Good Woman - About 20 minutes into the concert and all she has played (at this point in time) are unreleased songs. This would be the first song of the concert anyone would recognize from her albums. She begins this song with by humorously repeating the sliding note intro. If I'm not mistaken we can hear the sound of her tapping her feet while playing on this song and many others from this concert. The audience applauds.

Love And Communication - Still on guitar, Chan begins this song. I notice some lyrics here that did not end up in the final version. The audience applauds at the end of the song.

Remember Me - Try Me Medley - Chan is now back on piano. Except for her aborted "Hey Porter", this is her first cover of the evening. She always sings these songs so beautifully. She does two verses of "Remember Me", then two verses of "Try Me", then sings simply, "Remember Me" to end this medley. Then straight into the next song. This was way to short.

Norma Jean - Names Medley - About "Norma Jean". I always have trouble deciding how to classify this song. First off, I dont even know what it is called. I always call it "Norma Jean" because thats the first line of the song. Is it or was it ever its own song? Was it originally always a part of "Names" and Chan decided to remove it when she recorded "Names" for "You Are Free"? Was it written after You Are Free as an incomplete song and Chan thought it made a good intro to "Names"? I have no answers for these questions. Its got its own chord progression which is totally different from "Names" and on at least one occasion she coupled it with "Why". I tend to go with the reasoning that it is a unique composition. But as we know, nothing is for certain in Cat Power World. So, who knows. Hopefully one day we'll know more about this one. In any case, she sings it here as she normally does as an intro to "Names", but then after a quick run-through of Perry, Naomi, Cheryl, Donovan, and Charles, she goes right back into "Norma Jean" again to end this song. She goes right into the next song.

He's A Mighty Good Leader - She seems to have been into this Beck cover around this time as all of the versions I have come from this short European tour. She doesnt do much of this before moving right into the next song.

Willie - "Kind of a boring song, get ready for it, hang onto your hat", Chan says at the beginning. Her first real comments to the audience so far. I might be out of line here, but I agree, Chan. Look at the writing styles of John Lennon and Paul Mccartney. John almost universally wrote about himself. Whereas Paul loves to write about "Lovely Rita" and "Paperback Writer"s and stuff like that. Thats not to discount anyones songwriting abilities whatsoever. But their difference in style is interesting. I love them both anyway. You also have Bruce Springsteen who writes about all these characters as well. Most of his stuff has never interested me that much. But then on the other hand, you have Bob Dylan (or God Dylan as Chan says), and he writes about characters as well, and I love his stuff. So I guess I have two minds about this type of songwriting. But for me, "Willie" has always been a bit of a misnomer in Chan's discography. I wonder if she wrote it as an experiment in writing that type of style, just talking about people and what they are doing in their lives. She sings most of the song and then goes straight into to the next one without a pause.

I Dont Blame You - Again, this would be one of the few songs played at this concert the audience would recognize. With all of her new "The Greatest" songs having been added to the setlist, songs like this one and "Good Woman" and "Names" would be more and more pushed out of the setlist to make way. By 2006 and the release of "The Greatest" it was rare for anything from her prior albums to be played live. A great version and huge applause at the end. "Thank you", Chan says.

Hey Porter - Now back on guitar, Chan has another go at this Johnny Cash cover. She doesnt play much of this and in fact I'm not sure she ever played the whole song in a live performance. She goes right into the next song.

Wolf Among Wolves - This is good but I like other versions better. She goes right into the next song.

Islands - A somewhat short version of this tune. Again, right into the next song. At this point she seems to be losing focus or is perhaps ready to call it a night, but she does soldier on through some more songs.

Satisfaction - This is played at a somewhat faster pace than most renditions and she doesnt sing the whole thing. And without warning she goes right into the next song.

I Want To Be The Boy To Warm Your Mother's Heart - Like "Satisfaction" before, this is a bit faster then she usually plays it. Again, not the whole song. She ends it by going into her "blues licks". "So wheres Jack right now?", Chan says. "Any more?" Chan strums some random chords and then goes into the next song.

From Fur City - Another rare version of this Smoke cover. She seems to end this early and goes back to her "blues licks" for a moment. The audience applauds. "Thank you", Chan says. "Who thinks they smell worse then me? Anybody?", Chan says. "Whenever I take a bath, thats when I wash these clothes. You all know, theres never time to wash your clothes no matter what your doing."

In This Hole - Chan moves back to piano for this live rarity. This is pretty good. Suprisingly, she goes into the next song while playing the same chords as "In This Hole".

Sophisticated Lady - This was not played much beyond 2005, its a bit faster than other versions and she seems to be just having fun with it, singing only a few verses, before going playing a short burst of the "Pink Panther Theme". "That was a joke by the way, sorry", Chan says.

Oh, Time - Not her best live version of this unreleased original, but still very nice. She ends it by playing some of the chords from another unreleased song, "When I Lay Me Down", and then another small burst of the "Pink Panther Theme" while the audience applauds.

When I Lay Me Down - This would probably be one of the few concerts where both "When I Lay Me Down" (not sure if that is the title) and "The Moon" were both played. She only sings a verse, before ending it. But pretty neat.

Who Knows Where The Time Goes - One of the early live versions of this song, she only sings a verse of this before running her hand down the keys of the piano to end the concert to loud applause.

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I saw Cat Power last night, in Edinburgh. It's the second time I've seen her, and once again I was entranced, moved, made sad and serene. She played "Good Woman", "I Don't Blame You", some covers (including "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and "Satisfaction" [with chorus]), but mostly it was new stuff. They were sad and beautifully-written songs, some of them about true love, some of them about heartbreak. She played the Pink Panther theme. She played "Names". She played me like a fiddle. And she looked pretty ok, I thought.

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We'll come onto Ms Marshall in a moment, but first tonight's support. Entrance hails from that well-known blues heartland, Baltimore, MD. He has big hair, a big beard and is impossibly bohemian in appearance. He was also very, very bad - dire, cliched, bluesy guitar twanging and a quite ridiculous voice. At a couple of points during the set, he even thinks he's the reincarnation of Jeff Buckley and hollers his little heart out. Sorry pal, you're not, you're a one trick pony without a trick and you were shit. "I wish I was in Baltimore" went one of his songs. So do I, so do I...

To say I was looking forward to this gig was a bare-faced lie. Twice I have seen Cat Power live, twice I have left disappointed and disillusioned at how one of my favourite people on record can be such a mess in concert. But, I bought the ticket, I told myself "it has to be good one of these times, it has to..."

And it was. You can nit-pick about the fact that she didn't finish some songs, or about how she fiddled with her mic stand and all that, but there were moments of utter, utter sublime, fragile and delicate beauty to be found in her set. The set up was simple, voice, guitar and piano, doing a wee set of songs alternating between the latter two. I wish I could tell you everything she played, but I only recognised a handful of tunes - a slightly off-kilter, but effective "Good Woman", the working of the devastating/exploitative (you decide!) "Names" into another, unknown piano based number and a quite extraordinary version of "Satisfaction" which, for the couple of minutes that she played it, was spellbinding.

I know she's a nervous performer, but I thought the way she did it tonight worked - minimal audience interaction (the aforementioned moments of self-deprecation which my colleague and I disagreed on), back and forth between piano and guitar for a few songs each. John thought she lost it towards the end, I don't think she did, the last song on the piano was fantastic and as I said there were a lot of great moments. The last time, it ended in chaos with Chan stumbling drunkenly about the stage to cheers from her fawning acolytes - this time it ended in mere confusion with a song finishing and then the realisation that that was it and a wave goodbye.

It's never going to be completely perfect, but I'm glad I went and saw that, maybe sometimes, Cat Power gigs won't be such an abberation.

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Updated to include a review of the concert recording.